Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Broke truck and grand vistas.

It doesn’t seem like all that much has been going on in my life lately, but I suppose there are some updates to be posted. For one thing – the 4Runner has officially bit the bullet. With 315,000 miles on the ticker I heard a bad grinding noise and then the engine stalled. When I took the poor gal apart I found this:

A shattered valve shim, with a valve lifter shoved a little funky into the block:

The cost to repair the valve assembly and replace the head is more than the truck is worth by a good bit, so it’s time for the beast to go on to the graveyard. It’s been a great ride though, and I’ll definitely miss it.

So now my day-to-day life is a little bit more local, limited to where my feet can take me, or where Courtney wants to drive when we have time off together. C’est la vie.

We did get to spend some time down in the canyon for spring break, which was a blast, as usual. I saw some swirly rocks:

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And some swirly water:

I also had the opportunity to get off the beaten path and hike a route called the ARZ, which was amazing! Filled with grand vistas of the canyon (bright angel creek seen here):

Not a bad spot to hang out:

Other than that:

- I will be starting a new job in the nearish future, making coffee at Starbucks, and scratching another item off the ol’ bucket list.

- Prescott is starting to warm up again, making me miss my daily forays into the woods with the dog.